maybe
|
10.23.09: I apologize to anyone that has
tried to view my website for the past few days: My domain expired. Auto-billing doesn’t actually mean that it
would be automatically billed to my credit card; it’s some kind of
quasi-manual automatic billing system that requires phone calls and other
manual types of interaction. We were
not impressed. Perhaps next time a
company is bought out, they would be kind enough to inform those
affected. I went home last month. Ate a lot of Southern style BBQ. Did some surfing. Saw people.
Gained more than 10 pounds as per usual. Visited a beer brewers convention that was
invite only. Sang karaoke. Sawed people in half. It’s rumored there were pictures involved,
and after I can wrest them from a camera thousands of miles away, I might
considering posting them. Bribe me. Been a year since I
posted. What has changed? Don’t ask.
Will be in touch… - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 09.04.08: I am Disappointment's
master. I let my shrunken fingers malinger towards the whip and she
comes glowering, fleet as Mercury on his steed and chariot crafted from
Solaris dust; shimmering debris wrought and fashioned into physicality.
What's to come? Where am I going, and where have I been? It's
harder to shoulder the burden than before. The edges seem to crumble,
creaking and cracking; an exorcised spirit, wispy and effervescent like sand
on a wind, like leaves on a breeze. I can see ocean on the
horizon. Azure and ominous. The longer I walk towards it, the
further away it seems. Rocks in my pocket. Sand in my shoes. In case you were wondering, I
have bought a plane ticket that I expect to use on the 9th of
September. I am ragged, haggard and in dire need of
revitalization. My sins have cut me off from spirituality and the dead
around me feed upon my energy. Psychic vampires are the worst.
Selfish and unforgiving. When they dig their fingers in, there is
little resistance. Immolation. Years ago I inscribed somewhere
that uncertainty had intoxicated me; years under its influence have saturated
me with a more staining malady than stagnation. The days all meld
together like a collage of crayon scratchings in a child's coloring
book. The months are poured from a teapot onto the floor; collecting
and pooling for a dirty footprint to be stomped on its face.
Years: An eye-blinked memory that's spotted with empty chasms and
fissures like the core of a peach spat not exactly in the finest of
fettles. My mind wanders to and fro; a
child on a swing set swollen with glee. If any of you that linger in my
thinning wake wish to have contact, please contact me through email. Both of the addresses I use
are here. 9.9 is a day to be reckoned with. Why do I come
back? The sea beckons for it is my only master. I return to my
broken country. - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 07.31.08: I am still alive. Olympic
frenzy is upon us like a plague of advertising locusts. I'll write
something when I have time. I've worked 55 days without a break.
I'll leave you with this little ditty about the mindset of most people around
here. Ever wonder why the Western media has a bad impression of China? CHINA student says: CHINA student says: CHINA student says: Mydnight says: CHINA student says: Mydnight says: CHINA student says: CHINA student says: - Old News 1 - Old News 2 - Old News 3 - Old News 4 - 04.29.08: It continues. I put
"I love Carrefour" in my MSN window and got a blanket of
suffocating responses about how I "hate" China. It's too bad
they don't teach logic in school here; it would be a great class to follow
the class they have to take in UNI about Mao's political theories. The
newest media distraction now is Carrefour. It's evil. I hate
it. It's bad. Why? Well, simply because its French. It's nothing but political
retribution on the part of the Chinese, and now I can say, the Chinese
general population; not just the government. The Olympic torch was
protested in America and suddenly we get the CNN story on the front
pages. When it happened in France, the next week Carrefour was said to
have donated money to the DLLM (Teabet's spiritual leader) and Carrefour has
been in cahoots with him for ages, apparently. If you didn't know, as
it was told to me by one of my adult students, and I can't find ANY
information about this, the DLLM was apparently given French
citizenship. This ironic or ridiculous at best because if you asked any
Chinese girl between the ages of 16-26 about France two weeks ago, they would
immediately chirp "romantic" before you could get another word out
of your mouth. In the amount of time it takes a newspaper to fall from
your hand to the ground, France is now another enemy of the state when the relationship
was excellent just two weeks ago. You would never see any
information about the recent train wreck (also covered here, on CNN or BBC
- research before opening your idiotic mouth, please) in Shandong that killed
70 people and injured 420, would you? Nope, it's more important to
focus on the common enemy - the entire outside world. You want to see
goons and thugs in action? Check out this video clip of a mob of
Chinese beating a South Korean protestor. That wouldn't be
on the news either. French protested against the
Olympics - retribution received: Carrefour <Check> If you read this and feel
angry, you are brainwashed, sorry. Check out this wonderful
conversation with a former adult student. It's a bit one-sided because
this is the end of the conversation [sic]: Student says: Mydnight says: Mydnight says: Student says: Student says: Mydnight says: Student says: Mydnight says: Mydnight says: Student says: Mydnight says: Mydnight says: The Chinese are not racist and never do anything wrong! - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 04.17.08: The newest craze in China is to
talk about "western media bias". This whole Teabet
(misspelled on purpose) human rights issue has spawned millions of
bellyaching, passive-aggressive Chinese blog entries, because they are too
enfeebled to do anything else but complain online, all over the net.
Even on the front pages of nearly every newspaper you can see stories or ANY
excuse to talk about this issue. The newest and most ridiculous
testament to this moot issue has to do with Jack Cafferty of CNN. He
made some offhand remarks, BIG SURPRISE THAT JACK CAFFERTY MADE SOME OFFHAND
REMARKS, RIGHT?, about China and has set the entire country on fire with
reports of bias and hate mongering. The most hilarious aspect of this
is that you probably had no idea that any of this was going on, right?
Well, it's on the front page of every major Chinese cities' newspaper
today. Apparently, someone just adept
enough at English caught The Cafferty Files when he made these remarks. China's new devil speaks: "I don't know if China is any different, but
our relationship with China is certainly different," Cafferty said.
"We're in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in
Iraq, for one thing. They're holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of
our paper. We are also running hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of trade
deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint
on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where
you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we're buying
from Wal-Mart. "So I think our relationship
with China has certainly changed," he said. "I think they're
basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50
years." The Chinese have followed
normal fashion and fallen back into their collectivistic safety net of
"we's, us's, and our's" and claim racism against all Chinese
people. Let us briefly analyze the above statements since whomever
discovered Cafferty's remarks apparently didn't have very good reading
comprehension ability. But first, here is a conversation I had with a
bright Chinese University student to illustrate my current annoyance. I
also must mention that I've had this exactly conversation several times today
already so without further adieu [sic]: Student says: Mydnight says: Mydnight says: Mydnight says: Student says: I just find it rather
frightening that they resort to the "we" line of thinking.
They completely erase their personal identity and join a sort of
pseudo-collectivistic national identity under any sign of duress or pressure
from the outside. It's also very frustrating to try and have a logical
conversation with anyone when they suddenly and arrogantly elevate themselves
to become the mouthpiece for 1.3billion people with their personal pronouns
and blind pride. I only wish they could see that it's their leaders
trying to use out-group/in-group psychology to control them. Once a
group of people have a common "enemy", they are very easily
influenced to fight against that enemy. My old student managed to use 5
personal pronouns in less than 2 complete sentences. But, lets be fair:
America cultural brainwashes with even more frightening accuracy by using
fear to control the people. From the 1950s until around the turn of the
millennium, the catch-all scary word was communism. Fear and hate Red
China and Russia. During those times, if you talked to any ordinary
person on the street and asked them what they thought of communism, the
knee-jerk response would be "I hate it!". Also, if you asked
them to explain what the word meant or any premise of communism, they surely
would admit they knew nothing about it before declaring you a traitor and a
communist for knowing so much about it. It's ad homenium at best, and
it does nothing but draw away your attention from the fact that they are
ignorant about communism. Since the word "communism" doesn't
scare Americans anymore, Russia fell, and Red China is that big business
buddy across the water, it was high time for America to invent another spooky
word. It's now terrorism and the Middle East that Americans hate; think
Bushes remarks about the Axis of Evil as if terrorism could be reduced to an
episode of the X-men. Psychic misdirection <check!> and a common
enemy <check!>. We now have full-scale fear that controls!
Could it be that China is attempting to use pronouns and collectivism to draw
everyone's attention away from how dire the situation in China is to other
more useless "current events" around the world; to draw the
country's eyes away from what's really happening around them in their
homeland. Like, the fact that food prices here now rival food prices in
the US, UK, and Europe? Like the fact that people are still getting
paid peanuts to work 12-hour days? Just perhaps. The new scapegoat for China's
collective attention is now Jack Cafferty. He is instant
celebrity. Congrats, Jack! As to Cafferty's remarks, I
find them to be wholly true even though they are a bit brash. I am not
an American zealot nor do I consider myself a patriot for the "American
cause" or whatever that may be now (raiding oil-rich countries?).
It's time for China to grow up. If they can't take criticism, they
shouldn't have asked the world's spotlight shone upon them by agreeing to
host the Olympics. FACT - The trade deficits
between the US and China are huge. How they managed to misconstrue
Cafferty's words into thinking that he was talking about the common people
just simply doesn't make sense. I suppose the common people of China
hold all the billions of dollars that Cafferty was referring to in his
3-sentence quip, right? It's big business and government, people.
Open "your" eyes and look around you before you jump into
"we"-mode and realize that while you love your country, your country
doesn't love you. Actually, it's the same in America, the country that
China is trying it's best to follow onto a road to prosperous ruin.
America loves you if you have money; as does China. In case you were wondering, one
of the major reasons why they always use personal pronouns to refer to
themselves as a national entity instead of an individual is because they fear
to take any responsibility solely on themselves. It's much safer to
appear as an onlooker in a huge crowd than to stick out and get run over by a
tank,
right? It's nothing but mob mentality on a huge psychological
scale. To my students that will
ultimately read this post: I hope you are mature enough to understand the
dangers of brainwashing and not thinking for yourselves. - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 03.05.08: And though I'll think of you I guess, until the day I die, - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 01.24.08: Well, it's that time of the
year again: the time of bribery and blackmailing. Wait, no, I
mean it's the Chinese Spring Festival or Chinese New Year to laymen.
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, which actually differs from any
other Western lunar calendar that I've ever seen, like the famed Farmer's
Almanac, the official day of the "new year" is February 7.
Some people have told me the 6th and some people have told me the 8th if that
gives you any concept of the Chinese idea of "precise". I say
"blackmailing and bribery" because of the nature of the primary tradition
of the New Year which is giving "hong bao" (red envelope; literally
red bag). Most companies will have to give "hong bao" to
various government or party members to assure their next year will be a
smooth one. Grafting under the guise of "traditional Chinese
culture" - genius. Many bosses also have to bribe their workers to
continue working for them but this is called "yearly bonus" in the
form of a "hong bao". The salaries are low enough that the
boss can afford it in most cases. As for myself? I am not legally
affiliated with any particular organization or school so I receive zero bonus
money in the form of jack squat. Sweat of my brow, just the way I like
it. I love it that they call it
"Spring Festival". It's usually miserably cold in most parts
of China and will remain that way for another 2 or 3 months but yet, somehow,
they refer to it as "Spring". It's visa renewal time again:
the yearly plight of any non-Chinese working in China. It's also an
exercise in bribery of sorts that I can't go into fully here due to reasons
of legality and anonymity. The first step in this near insurmountable
process is a health check at a specific hospital that has relations with the
government so they can get all that business. In years past, the place was
rather dilapidated and dirty which is sort of the typical Chinese-style
hospital scenery one expects. This year the hospital has had major
renovations which means all their years of bribery and their connections have
paid off! The dingy, dank, cave-like walls have been replaced
with an illuminated, neon blue and the un-tiled concrete floor redone.
This also means that the hospital can charge more money for their
services. This year it set me back 290RMB (around 40 bucks); not too
bad for a complete physical including a EEG, blood work and a chest
x-ray. It's done rather tersely. Paperwork, poking and prodding
and all, it will cost you less than an hour of your time and you are sorely
on your way again to the sounds of cars honking, construction, and people
shouting: the medley to life in a Chinese city. My physical Renaissance
continues. My official weigh-in came out to a skimpy 86.5kg (190
pounds) which is about what I weighed when I was in UNI. I essentially
gained enough poundage last year to push me up to 97.5kg (215 pounds) and
managed to lose it in 4 months. Having lived through what it feels to
be "overweight", I can definitely say that being in the correct
weight class feels much better. How did I do this? Simple. Exercise! Don't stop eating and think it will help
you lose weight. Didn't you learn anything about "metabolism"
in your high school or UNI PE classes? I began my exercise regimen by
jumping on the treadmill and running for an half hour, and then hitting the
weights, followed by another half hour on the treadmill. I
knocked off 5kg in about a month and a half. The rest of the weight
started to peel off as I increased my running speed and work-out
efficiency. It's basically 30-45 minutes of cardio 3-4 times a week
plus a bit of work on the weights. Oh yeah, I also stopped
drinking the bad beer available for general consumption. Only bad red
wine and hard liquor now. heh. New Year, so I cut the main
News page a bit. It can be accessed via link below. Cheers and until next time, Mydnight. - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - 01.24.08: In my re-education into the
"world of man" as my Chinese friends call it, I have taken to
occasionally drinking wine. The swill they ingest here is
relatively disgusting: it's a rice-based wine that tastes like paint
thinner and rubbing alcohol, basically. It is nothing akin to Japanese
Saki, and whomever has told you this has belied and mislead you.
Ironically, some of the best wines come from my "native" Sichuan
province in the town of YiBin under several different brands. Wu Liang
Ye is one of the most famous brands in YiBin with another notable but cheaper
option from the other parts of the province being Jin Nan Chun. It
comes in two strengths with the lower end bottles being 36 degrees (72 proof)
and the higher usually being 54 degrees (108 proof). Beijing city and
neighboring HeBei province has a wine under the brand name Er Gou Tou which
comes in around 65 degrees (130 proof) for those brave enough to try.
The general method of imbibing is in the form of a shot taken from small
glasses but some prefer to pour a glass for themselves to "enjoy"
the wine. As a side note, Guangdong people are relatively light-weights
when it comes to drinking. The only way they will "challenge"
another to drinking is by inviting several of their close friends to
accompany them to the dinner table and by using "Chinese human
wave" tactics (seen in Chinese warfare - send thousands of poorly
trained soldiers forward to their doom for the purpose of taking out as many
enemy soldiers as possible), attempt to disarm their opponent. There
are very few drinking customs in this province unlike other places. For instance, in Sichuan, a
student must always stand up to drink with his teacher and make sure when his
glass touches the teachers glass that it is positioned lower. It
wouldn't be considered proper or polite to hold your glass high in a toast as
I was told in my first attempt to make a toast by raising my glass.
It's also exceedingly important to pour someone's wine with both hands and
always directly in front of you or to the right as some people say it's
pouring close to your heart. Pouring over your shoulder or to the left
is considered insulting. When actually drinking, one should consider
how quickly or slowly to drink as well; this is where one that truly is a
master of custom excels socially. It's not a matter of
"out-drinking" your opponent or client, often, it's a matter of
making them believe they have won while you are still in control.
Business deals, meetings between friends, family reunions, or even light
social drinking all have different rules and expectations but it matters not
"how much" you drink but "how" you drink in each
occasion. Possessing such knowledge is considered having
"class" in China. Socially, it can make the difference
between appearing like a buffoon or a "gentleman" - though the
latter term has to be used loosely considering a Westerner's understanding of
the word. Guangdong is a different
story. The most eloquent explanation I can offer is that the Cantonese
are the rednecks of China; ironically Canton is in the South. Imagine
farmers that became rich overnight and all the lack of culture that would
involve such a travesty - this is Guangdong province 2008. Drinking is
measured in amount you drink, how much money you spend on the wine
(regardless if it's worth even half the price of what they pay), and who do
you treat to drink it. All other century-old customs have been
forgotten or ignored in lieu of the expression of trying to appear as wealthy
and powerful as possible. It's a repeat of the "New Russians"
or the Novyi Russkiy or even the turn of the century (1900) New American
generations. Money and wealth doesn't amount to culture or even an
understanding of it. New money is difficult to convince of this
fact. I digress... I've not taken to drinking
Baijiu (the Chinese rice wine; literally, white wine) often, but if the
chance occurs that I can have a pure form of the wine that's often drank by
farmers or people in the countryside, I will drink. Such wines are
often handmade in local homes or breweries and are only crafted for local
consumption; they have no reason to adulterate the wine for commercial
purposes as with the famous brands. Some of the most interesting wines
are the medicinal wines that are used for a variety of purposes. The
high degree alcohol is used and ingredients are put into the wine to sit and
allow the "medicinal qualities" of the matter to diffuse out into
the wine. Guangdong locals especially believe in such
"tonics" (called in Old World EU and the USA) and old men often
seek out arcane types of wines to drink to help them with their sexual
vigor. Snake wine is considered good for sexual strength as well as
various other wild animal parts such as deer horn or wild animal penis.
As the wine ages, it's supposedly to increase in power; so 20 year old bear
bone wine would be very expensive at shop if you could find the real
deal. I'm not sure if the age concept was always the case or if it was
taken from the idea of aging wine in the West - no true information is
available. It's generally accepted that any such wine is good for a
man's sexual vigor and, consequently, good for a woman's beauty. I've had experience in drinking
some truly strange tonics in my time here. In the deep countryside of
Sichuan, I was once treated to tiger wine. In Guangdong, I've had 20
year old ginseng wine that was found in an abandoned house that someone
forgot about; wild deer penis/foot/bone wine; the Chinese mountain fungus
(mushroom; picked wild from decaying trees in the deep mountains; farmers
treated me to drink it as they handpicked it) wine; owl, snake and all others
forms of animal wines; other miscellaneous plant matter wines; and even wine
made using snake gall bladder and poison. My other pursuits in the world
of Western wines have been pretty unsuccessful. While red and white
wines and various other spirits are commercially available, most of these
wines are extremely overpriced and in quality. The rich locals prefer
to drink some types of cognac or brandy because it's considered elite but in
reality, it's only marketing and psychology that has elevated their thousand
dollar bottles of Hennessy or XO. When knowledge about wines fail
through experience, the next logical step is to find materials to read about
the subject. Where else to turn to but the internet: cheaper that
way also. Gary Vaynerchuk, host of the
now widely popular vblog "Wine Library TV" is on a one-man quest to change the
face of the wine world. Gary has been featured on Conan O'Brien, The
Ellen Show, and Nightline in the USA due to his unique way to "train
your palate". He feels that if you describe a Sauvignon Blanc as
"grassy" you should feel what grassy is really like by putting
grass in your mouth. What was once a pompous, elitist market filled
with insiders and merchants is now becoming an Everyman experience.
I've watched the show for a while now and have learned much about the
different wines of the world. He was even nice enough to give us a "shout out" on his show about Nero D'avola wines
but.....he apparently thought Gabriel is pronounced "Gabrielle" and
referred to me as a female. It's the thought that counts. Check
out your host's famous shout-out...it's right at the 3 minute
mark. - Old
News 1 - Old
News 2 - Old
News 3 - Old
News 4 - |
